by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

FONTANA, Calif. - Nerves were fraying, tires were disintegrating, and Sprint Cup drivers were scrambling Sunday at Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.

For the second consecutive year, the Auto Club 400 was decided on the final lap, which meant that Kyle Busch's No. 18 Toyota was positioned perfectly - in third place at the white flag.

"Put me in the right spot and give me the steering wheel, Coach," Busch said with a laugh after winning his second thriller in a row and his third overall at the 2-mile oval. "That's it."

Busch made it seem that simple Sunday, sweeping past his older brother, Kurt, and Tony Stewart into the lead and holding off a furious charge by rookie Kyle Larson for the victory.

The finish was the reverse of Saturday's Nationwide race when Larson defeated Kyle Busch for his first NASCAR national series win.

Kurt Busch finished third, followed by Matt Kenseth and Stewart.

Sunday was reminiscent of when Busch grabbed the win last year while Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano wrecked on the last lap and touched off a melee in the pits, and this year's race featured just as much drama - but the plot centered around tire problems instead of tempers.

At least four yellow flags flew for drivers who suffered blowouts, and there were several more that didn't cause cautions - including Jimmie Johnson, who was cruising toward a record sixth win at Fontana before his left front exploded with a scheduled six laps remaining.

That handed the lead to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon, who was leading when the yellow flew a final time when Clint Bowyer spun with a tire problem setting up a green-white-checked finish and a bevy of divergent pit strategies that jumbled the field and left Gordon 13th.

"It is just so disappointing," Gordon said. "I hate Goodyear was not prepared for what happened. They are so good at what they do, and that is just uncalled for. When I saw (Johnson) had issues I was just hoping we would make it to the end, and I was just going as slow as I possibly could trying to maintain the lead and cars were just blowing tires left and right all around me. It's unfortunate that was happening."

Brad Keselowski, whose Ford suffered tire woes in practice and the race, said new 2014 rules have increased the speed of the Gen 6 cars while increasing the stress borne by the tires.

"You can't add 500-600 pounds of downforce to a race car along with a track that has bumps like you are on a freeway in Michigan," Keselowski said. "The tires just aren't made for it. â?¦ I would expect similar issues through the season. If you are going to fix it you either have to change the margin on the tire or put the cars back to their configuration last year where they were less harsh on the tires."

There were no tire worries for Busch ("it's sort of like playing with fire. If you pour too much gas on it or let too much air out of it, the thing is going to go boom", he said) who also gets to enjoy a relatively stress-free regular season as the latest provisional qualifier for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

"I wouldn't say relaxation, but it certainly takes the pressure off," Busch said after his 29th victory in NASCAR's premier series. "Now we've still got to continue to make our cars better. We could show speed early, not be so good in the middle but then come on at the end. So we're kind of all over the place.

"With with the race that we had, to be in victory lane is a huge relief. Now we've just got to put our focus forward on continuing to work hard."

Kevin Harvick was the first driver affected when his No. 4 Chevrolet suffered a blown left-rear tire and caused a caution on Lap 20. The yellow waved again on Lap 44 for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who also had a left-rear tire go flat.

Both drivers rebounded quickly, though, climbing back into the top 10 within 50 laps of their incidents, but Harvick had another left-rear problem on Lap 139 and fell three laps down on a green-flag stop. Carl Edwards, who won last week at Bristol Motor Speedway, also spun with a left-rear problem to cause a caution, and Roush Fenway Racing teammate Greg Biffle experienced a similar problem.

For the second consecutive year, Denny Hamlin was part of a major storyline at Fontana, but this time it was before the race began. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver wasn't cleared to race by track doctors after experiencing vision problems from a sinus infection. Team president J.D. Gibbs said Hamlin went to a local hospital for further evaluation.

Though Hamlin's absence ensured there wasn't a repeat of his feud with Logano (which resulted in a last-lap crash that broke Hamlin's back), there were flared tempers again.

After a crash with Brian Scott on Lap 70, Aric Almirola took aim at his rival, who runs full time in the Nationwide Series and part time in Cup, during a Fox interview.

"(Scott) was obviously a dart without feathers and coming across the racetrack," Almirola said. "He ran right into me. It's a shame for our team. He's not even racing this series for points. He's out there having fun because his daddy gets to pay for it and he wrecked us. That's frustrating."